The days of surviving by simply having a website are gone. As technology advances, so too do the consumers who use it; becoming simultaneously more tech-savvy and more demanding. Luckily, we know a thing or two about award-winning website design. So, let’s look at how you go from simply being ‘present online’, to being ‘an online presence’.

Website = Brand
Today your website is more than a way to find your business; it IS your business. Design quality reflects the quality of your product or service, site layout reveals how much you’ve considered the customer’s standpoint, functionality reflects the ease of dealing with your company, the list goes on. Most of the time consumers don’t even know they are making these judgements. It happens in a subconscious microsecond, but it happens.

More than ever, consumers are using the internet to research products and services before buying. For many people your website will be the first time they ever see your brand. Can you think of a time you met someone and instantly felt uneasy about them? How about getting one of those ‘wet fish’ handshakes? Well, your website is your company’s handshake. Here are a few ways to make it firm, reassuring, and memorable for the right reasons:

Paint your nails: No, not really. Although if you want to treat yourself go ahead! The point here is some hands are big, some are small, but they should all be clean. That’s what we create at Denvir; clean website design that grabs attention and is beautiful to look at. In addition, our designers tailor each website to match the overall brand, making them unmistakeably connected. So, take a close look at your site and ask yourself, “am I due a manicure?”.

Be More Friendly: Woohoo, it’s the weekend! You’re in a bar, and introduce yourself someone only to have your perfectly manicured hand rejected. Don’t panic, it happens to the best of us. Some customers will visit your website and leave immediately; that’s a ‘bounce’. On average a website will have a bounce rate of around 40%. However, if your website is not mobile-friendly i.e. it doesn’t adjust when viewed on a smartphone or tablet, expect your bounce rate to jump up closer to 80%! (Find out how ‘bounce rate’ effects your Google ranking in our SEO top tips blog)

Even on a full-sized device, if your website isn’t ‘responsive’ i.e. does not adjust when visitors shrink their browser window size, you will also see an increase in bounce rate. Check out some of our mobile-friendly and responsive websites on your PC and smartphone:

– aph.co.uk
– sulaire.com
– tendeka.com

Don’t play hard to get: When you do find that special someone, or rather they find your website, don’t mess them around. Think about what you want to get out of their site visit, but most of all, think about what they want to get from their visit.

At Denvir, we spend a lot of time planning the ideal customer journey and overall user experience (UX) for our clients’ websites. If websites are not well thought-out visitors will struggle to find the information they need. This leads to customers giving up, or worse still, thinking you are trying to hide something from them, and becoming wary of your brand.

Making your website a chore to navigate will also cause concerns about customer service in general. What if people are unhappy or need support with your service or product? Is it going to be equally hard to get help from someone?

Have good chat: If you bore someone to death the first time you meet them, it will probably be the last time you meet them too. The same goes for websites. Keep things interesting, post new and engaging content on a regular basis; this can be something as simple as a monthly blog. You don’t have to be Oscar Wilde, just focus on what matters to your customers, or your industry in general. The idea here is to keep them coming back for more, and positioning yourself as being up-to-date experts in your field.

If you’re unsure how, or simply don’t have time to write regularly, give us a call. We have our very own in-house copywriter (wordy-person). After all, you’ve almost made it to the end of this blog, so his writing can’t be that bad!

Be fast or be last: It’s official, Google have started tracking the speed of your website and using it in their search result rankings. To that end, we cannot emphasise the importance of a well built and properly maintained website. Denvir not only design highly responsive websites, we offer full web-hosting and site maintenance services to ensure they run as fast as possible for their entire life. Find out other ways to climb the Google rankings in our SEO top tips blog.

Ready for a boost?
Discover in more detail how Denvir can improve your website’s performance in our Tendeka Website Case Study, and visit the gallery to browse our other beautiful award-winning website design work.